Maranda Curtis was born on August 4, 1979, in Miami as the fourth of seven children of pastor W. S. Curtis and Darlene Curtis. Before she began working professionally making gospel and praise and worship music, she grew up listening to R&B and jazz in a musical family and she sang from an early age.
Career
Curtis is a former worship leader at The Potter's House in Dallas, which is "one of the most influential churches" in the United States. In 2012, she released her first single, "Don't Take Your Love Away". Curtis's first extended play, The Maranda Experience, Vol. 1, debuted atop the BillboardTop Gospel Albums chart dated August 26, 2017. Curtis has explained that the title came from a desire of "making my private worship public" by "sharing my experience—the 'Maranda experience'—with others". She learned this desire of "responsible worship", she said, from a visit South Africa where she taught congregants who "would worship for three and a half hours. I was so convicted. I repented. A burning desire intensified inside of me to never be guilty of withholding my worship." The singer Fantasia commended The Maranda Experience, calling it "true worship". A live-in-concert version of the EP, Open Heaven: The Maranda Experience Live, was released the following year, as was the associated single "Nobody Like You Lord". Recorded in Delaware, the live album contains "jazz, traditional and churchy ballads... all the sounds I grew up singing", as Curtis said. Open Heaven debuted as a Billboard number-one gospel album on May 12, 2018, and stayed on the chart for 35 weeks; "Nobody Like You Lord" debuted on the Hot Gospel Songs chart at No. 20, eventually reaching the fifth place. Later in 2018, Curtis released a Christmas music EP, Maranda Presents a Holy Christmas, which BroadwayWorld called "extraordinary in its musical arrangements" with "the expected goosebump-raising vocals delivered by Curtis". It reached No. 9 on the Top Gospel Albums chart. At the 34th Annual Stellar Awards, for gospel music of 2018–19, Curtis was nominated for seven Stellars—including Artist of the Year, Song of the Year for "Nobody Like You Lord", and CD of the Year for Open Heaven—but she won none.
Personal life
While she was married to pastor Jamill Willis from 2010 until their divorce in 2016, she was known as Maranda Curtis Willis.
